TrotCon Snow Day AAR

Heya! It's everyone's favorite attention horse here with a quick After Action Report on TrotCon Snow Day! I cleared my weekend schedule so that I could make it, I have one paper left to rewrite, but I have plenty of time left before it's due so I decided to actually enjoy myself for a bit. I enjoyed getting to see all the VA's and panelists again, although I'll admit the virtual format is a touch less energizing than in person so I had a tendency to tune in to panels already underway. The first panel I attended was "Equestria's Next Top Artist", a fun watch for those who like drawing games. Next, the highly anticipated "Law & Order MLP: Special Villains Unit", which was a follow on to the panel last con covering the crimes of the Mane 6 et. al. under US/Ohio Law, focused on the villains of the show's crimes and misdemeanors. To recap, the last Law & Order panel decided that Twilight was the worst offender, followed by AJ, Spike, Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinky (as it turns out, one can't be charged for breaking the laws of physics, so Pinky was actually ruled completely innocent). This time around, the villains terrifying crimes were up for adjudication, and to no ones surprise Discord was the least law abiding (partly because he's a walking disorderly conduct charge, and partly because he's complicit in most of the major Season 9 villains crimes and under Ohio law therefore shares their punishments), followed by Sombra, the Storm King, Starlight Glimmer, Tirek, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, Nightmare Moon, and Stygian. It was most amusing to see certain villains get prison sentences on a geological timescale! On a serious note, I learned that Ohio's laws are rather draconian, and that US law when it comes to damaging Government property is positively antediluvian (a $100 of damage is a lot easier to do now than in the 1800s when that law was written, thanks both to inflation and to government contractors over inflation of absolutely everything sold to the government). I attended the panel with VA's Asia Mattu, Meaghan Hommy, and Alison Wandzura, who played Aurora, Bori, and Alice the Reindeer from the Christmas special, and welcomed them into the Con scene with my patented Shakespeare question. Their answers were Iago, Hermia, and Lady MacBeth, respectively. It's always such a fun question to get people's answers to... I'm going to have to start making a spreadsheet of these answers, aren't I? After dinner I watched the VA table read of our own Argembarger's script which was... argembargelly? Frankly, I feel like it would have been funnier being there in person, because it largely sounded like a bad Zoom call, and the "background music" kept drowning out the casts voices, so we could not hear the bard's masterful prose clearly . Nonetheless, the VA's had entirely too much fun doing it, so I think the panel was a resounding success. Everyone changing their Zoom names to confuse the audience was a glorious, only possible on the web moment, that still has me in hysterics! This afternoon I tuned into Cole Howard, Brian Doe, and Katrina Salisbury's panels, which I quite enjoyed. I feel like the "virtual panel" experience is much smoother for VA panels, as it is far less chaotic and everyone is rather more relaxed, not the least the moderators and con staff that make this all possible! Cole Howard's cat Thunder once more made a guest appearance, and it was amusing to hear Cole talk about the cat life skills he has picked up in quarantine. If it weren't for my own little fur ball, I'd probably have lost my mind too. I also enjoyed being able to watch my favorite Yak\Cyborg VA, and was pleased to see that her OC in her new Pixel Kitties VA art has a little insulin pump! Now, to just get working on the Borg Yona fan art... "Yak Smash! Resistance Futile!". I was finally able to get a status update on my two authentic G1 ponies that I sent out for restoration at last year's TrotCon, as the vendor handling the restoration was in the dealers hall and I finally found a platform they actively monitor to contact them on. I also decided to buy myself another TrotCon mask, as I quite liked the first one I bought last virtual con. I honestly don't think that this virus mess will be better before fall next year at the earliest, so I expect it'll see some use. I managed to do a little work on my FlutterDash story, though I'm still rather stuck for on some points at the moment, but hopefully I can have it out the door soon. This winter break looks like it'll be interesting, so many things to do that Grad School has shoved into the background! In the meantime, every pony, stay safe and Happy Holidays!

-Bluebook

Comments

[Reese]

Happy Holidays and stay safe yourself, and good luck with the work and writing! :)
And I'm glad it sounds like you had fun at the virtual con.